Phantom Spotify running on Macbook

[Ignatius Reilly]

This is weird.

I opened Spotify, connected to my main speakers via Google Chromecast dongle and started listening.

I wondered how much longer the song I was listening to had to go. Oddly, the timeline on the bar at the bottom wasn't changing.

It was a bit too loud so I tried to move the volume slider, but that didn't affect anything. Weird.

So I closed Spotify and..... it kept playing.

So I rebooted my macbook and.... it kept playing the whole time.

So... I opened Spotify and it was playing the current song with all controls working - I hit "pause" and it stopped immediately.

HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE???? Especially the bit where it played throughout the reboot.

I checked my phone, my wife's laptop, my old laptop... nothing. And only one device could be connected to the chromecast.

Any insights?

[Marty Canuck]

This is weird.

I opened Spotify, connected to my main speakers via Google Chromecast dongle and started listening.

I wondered how much longer the song I was listening to had to go. Oddly, the timeline on the bar at the bottom wasn't changing.

It was a bit too loud so I tried to move the volume slider, but that didn't affect anything. Weird.

So I closed Spotify and..... it kept playing.

So I rebooted my macbook and.... it kept playing the whole time.

So... I opened Spotify and it was playing the current song with all controls working - I hit "pause" and it stopped immediately.

HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE???? Especially the bit where it played throughout the reboot.

I checked my phone, my wife's laptop, my old laptop... nothing. And only one device could be connected to the chromecast.

Any insights?

Just a software error most likely.

[Ignatius Reilly]

Just a software error most likely.

But.... how does a software error persist thru a reboot? That was the really weird bit.

Before I rebooted there was no Spotify process running in the Activity Monitor, and there wasn't one running after the reboot, until I launched it.

[kimi]

Not sure I understand your network topology 100%...
My take is that when you started Casting, you in effect hand off the network link to the Chromecast device.
After this point, your Macbook is basically out of the network traffic flow.
The Macbook can reinsert itself back into the flow with additional commands/changes, but for just continuous listening, the Macbook is now out of the picture - as evidenced by the fact that you kept hearing Spotify play via direct Internet connection.
After reboot, when Spotify was restarted, it was smart enough to remember that Chromecast was being used before, so it reinserted itself as command/control over the Spotify stream, and got itself back in synch.
The bug in Spotify where slider didn't work - was likely just a bug.
There may be a timer where the Spotify stream to the Chromecast device may have to check back with the originating device (Macbook) after some period of time, in which case, at some point the music would have stopped (or maybe there is no such timer, but I would have built one in...)

[Ignatius Reilly]

Not sure I understand your network topology 100%...
My take is that when you started Casting, you in effect hand off the network link to the Chromecast device.
After this point, your Macbook is basically out of the network traffic flow.
The Macbook can reinsert itself back into the flow with additional commands/changes, but for just continuous listening, the Macbook is now out of the picture - as evidenced by the fact that you kept hearing Spotify play via direct Internet connection.
After reboot, when Spotify was restarted, it was smart enough to remember that Chromecast was being used before, so it reinserted itself as command/control over the Spotify stream, and got itself back in synch.
The bug in Spotify where slider didn't work - was likely just a bug.
There may be a timer where the Spotify stream to the Chromecast device may have to check back with the originating device (Macbook) after some period of time, in which case, at some point the music would have stopped (or maybe there is no such timer, but I would have built one in...)

That may explain it - I didn't realize there was a sort of "handoff" in effect.

The software bug made the Spotify controls ineffective but didn't affect the streaming.

It was the first time it happened, and the inability to stop the music by pausing or shutting down the laptop was a little alarming. I guess in normal use the Spotify app can talk to / interrupt the stream with control signals. I've never really learned how streaming works.

[Bosco]

I get something like what’s u describe when I loose wifi connection and it just loops the last song that was playing even if I shut down the app

[Marty Canuck]

But.... how does a software error persist thru a reboot? That was the really weird bit.

Before I rebooted there was no Spotify process running in the Activity Monitor, and there wasn't one running after the reboot, until I launched it.

I would not expect that either and I guess I glossed over that part when I read your post. But I have had some pretty odd things with hardware including streaming devices lately.

Also weird that when I am in the hot tub I will play from iPhone to a BT speaker. I also wear an Apple Watch. If my watch dips in the water it interupts the music even though ti was playing from a phone sitting inches from the speaker.

[johnny canuck]

I've been having quite a few issues with Spotify recently, which require me to completely close the app and reopen it.

From my experience, Spotify keeps some data "cached" (if that's the best term) and will continue to play when you are out of internet range on drives, etc.

The app crashed, but the connection was still there, even though it wasn't responding.

I believe the cached data would have kept the music playing and then when restarted, it picked up where it left off.

[johnny canuck]

too many tabs open, please ignore